The White House announced last night that President Obama is nominating former Republican Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle of Onondaga to serve as a commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Buerkle lost her bid for re-election in November to Democrat Dan Maffei and earlier this year terminated her campaign committee.

The White House announcement noted, “During her time in Congress, Ms. Buerkle was selected to serve as a United States
Representative to the 66th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations from 2011 to 2012. Previously, Ms. Buerkle was an Assistant Attorney General for the state of New York from 1997 to 2009. Earlier in her career, she practiced law in a private firm from 1994 to 1997. She began her career as a registered nurse at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. She received a B.S. from Le Moyne College and a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law.”

The final campaign finance reports came out for Congressional candidates late last week. Here are the final numbers for Western New York races. These amounts are from the Federal Election Commission and cover Jan. 1, 2011 to Nov. 26, 2012.

If it wasn’t evident from the television commercials, many groups wanted the votes of Western New Yorkers really, really badly.

Here’s how much was spent, on each vote, for each Congressional candidate. Overall, $22.6 million was spent in the three races — $4.9 million in the 25th District, $9.2 million in the 27th District, and $8.5 million in the 24th District.

25th Congressional District

$14.35 was spent on each vote for U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport ($2 million spent by candidate, $132,627 spent by outside groups to support her, $280,175 spent by outside groups to oppose Brooks, 166,342 votes.)

$20.52 was spent on each vote for Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, R-Webster ($792,152 spent by candidate, $334,857 spent by outside groups to support her, $1.4 million spent by outside groups to oppose Slaughter, 124,585 votes.)

The election is almost here. The country will be watching Western New York closely for the three competitive U.S. House races. According to the National Journal, the House will likely see record turnover this year.

National campaign committees are putting far more dollars into neighboring races than they are into U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter’s race against Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks in Monroe County.

The 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision allowed outside groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on uncoordinated expenditures for or against political candidates. While these groups aren’t required to disclose donors, they do disclose expenditures in federal campaigns to the Federal Election Committee.

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Contributors

Jon Campbell has been covering government and politics for the Gannett Albany Bureau since May 2011. Previously, he covered health and environmental issues for the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., with a focus on natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale.

Joseph Spector is Gannett Albany Bureau chief and has covered New York politics and government since 2002. He was the political reporter for the Democrat and Chronicle and has since joined the Albany Bureau, covering state government for all of Gannett New York.

Brian Tumulty has worked in the Gannett Washington Bureau since 1992, first as a national business writer and then as a regional reporter for newspapers in New York, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. A native of the New York City borough of Queens, he attended high school on Long Island and college in the Bronx. He has four children and one granddaughter.

Fact Check contributors

Gary Craig's focus for much of the past decade has been on criminal justice issues. He has won regional, state and national journalism awards, including honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the National Headliners Awards.

Len LaCara is the exclusive enterprise editor for the Democrat and Chronicle, in charge of local news, sports and business. He also directs our political coverage.

Meaghan McDermott has been with the Democrat and Chronicle since 1998, and has come close to reaching her one-time goal of being assigned as a beat reporter to cover each of Monroe County's suburban towns and villages. Since 2006, her focus has been on the Town of Greece and the Greece Central School District.

Steve Orr has been a reporter at the Democrat and Chronicle since 1981, and has covered a wide variety of local topics. At present Orr focuses on environmental issues. Contact: E-mail | Phone (585) 258-2386 | Twitter.com/SOrr1 | Facebook.com/SteveOrrROC